The Chinese Room‘s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will “borrow” elements from Baldur’s Gate 3 to ensure that players feel like their choices have weighty consequences.
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In an interview with PC Gamer, narrative designer Arone Le Bray shared that recent successful releases have been an inspiration for the anticipated role-playing game.
“Sarah (one of our writers) is a huge fan of Baldur’s Gate 3… we’re looking at how we can borrow aspects [from it], or how we can make sure we’re not taking giant steps backwards in terms of stories,” he said.
NME‘s review of Baldur’s Gate 3 paid praise to the “whirlwind” journey that it offers to players and the “real brilliance” in the level of freedom that the adventurers are granted to tread their own path.
“I absolutely classify narrative as an aspect of gameplay,” continued Le Bray about how the title will take from Larian Studios’ tour de force.
“How can we make the player feel like they’ve owned their outcomes? How can we make the player feel like they have the agency we want them to?”
The Chinese Room recently revealed the playable protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, Phyre.
They’re an Elder vampire whose gender, clothing, and clan can be customised by the player, and these choices can affect how characters react to Phyre and what powers they’ll be able to wield.
That being said, Phyre’s story is defined to a degree. While the developer has maintained the mystery for now, the protagonist is mentally linked Fabien, a much younger vampire who appears to be bound to Phyre.
“For us, it was about looking at Phyre and making sure their character feels believable in this time and setting… ‘is this character acting in a way the player expects that they would act?'” explained the narrative designer of the tension between the backstory and the choices the player is yet to make.
“We never want to make it feel like the player could make the wrong choice,” concluded Le Bray, but added that the team wanted “the choices to feel like [they could start] forum arguments.”
“Like, ‘How dare you make choice A, clearly the right thing to do was choice B!'”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is expected to release in late 2024 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
In other gaming news, upcoming massively multiplayer survival game The Day Before has delayed its launch again, and announced that it will be arriving in early access on Steam.